Test burns at depot meet rules, Army says

This story was published Wed, Jan 8, 2003

By Karen Spears Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- The Army says it has successfully completed mini-test burns at the Umatilla Chemical Depot without exceeding the state's toxic metal emissions levels. But state regulators say they need more proof.

Results from tests conducted Dec. 29 are promising. None of 10 toxic metals tested exceeded the allowable emissions levels, said Mary Binder, Army spokeswoman.

In two previous mini-test burns, toxic metals, such as chromium and lead, exceeded the state limits, sometimes by as much as double.

And unless the Army's contractor, Washington Demilitarization Co., can successfully prove it can burn the test materials, it is not going to be able to burn nerve agent. The Army hopes to begin in July burning the 3,717 tons of deadly agent stored at the depot.

But the Dec. 29 test burns aren't comparable, contends Sue Oliver, acting program administrator for Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

She explained that in the recent test burn the Army reduced by half the rate of materials it would feed into the liquid furnace when it starts destroying actual chemical agent.

And the Army has reformulated the amount of toxic metals used to spike the industrial solvents and industrial degreaser it burns during its mini-tests.

"I know it all sounds like they are mucking around until they pass this test. And that's true. But they are trying to establish a metals feed rate. That number will determine how fast they can destroy the munitions," Oliver said. "The goal is not to exceed the allowable emissions levels."

Oliver said the Army initially based its feed rate using emission results from a sister site in Anniston, Ala. But that rate proved to be too much for the Umatilla plant.

The two plants are identical and will burn the same type of agents -- sarin, VX and blister agent. But it could be that one plant will destroy munitons at a slower pace than another, depending, in part, on toxic emissions from the different sites, Oliver said.

"We know munitions from different lots will sometimes produce different toxic metals," Oliver explained.

The Army continued testing on Monday with feed rates equivalent to what it anticipates during agent destruction, Oliver said. The Army also used a spike of toxic metals that should be equivalent to what it may encounter during the burning of deadly nerve agent, she said.

The results of Monday's test aren't expected to be ready until later in the week.

 

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